


speak with my own voice

by AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Gen, Interviews, Misses Clause Challenge, Sextuple Drabble, Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 05:08:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13116690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Laima Greenfinch, interviewing Trisana Chandler for theLightsbridge Gazette, Watersday, 23 Hearth Moon, 1046 K.F.





	speak with my own voice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [azurish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurish/gifts).



> Thank you, angelsaves, for betaing!
> 
> Title from Lucille Clifton's “if i should”. the_rck, you're a title lifesaver.

_Laima Greenfinch, interviewing Trisana Chandler for the Lightsbridge Gazette, Watersday, 23 Hearth Moon, 1046 K.F._

**LG: Master Chandler, thank you for being willing to answer my questions.**

**TC:** Honestly, I hope I can direct any further questioners to your printed interview!

**LG: Yes, I imagine you have been _besieged_ —such a revelation, that _you_ , Lightsbridge mage-student Irayali Collier, are _Master Trisana Chandler_ , one of the four young Winding Circle mages of song and story!**

**TC:** Oh, Gods, are there _songs_ now?

**LG: I hate to be the bearer of bad news.**

**TC:** Ugh. So. Your first question?

**LG: You study here at Lightsbridge as an _academic_ mage, but your talents are well known to rely on ambient magic: the weather, in particular. Why did you choose to study academic magic?**

**TC:** I have studied enough war.

**LG: Oh, yes, the pirate fleet—your powers were instrumental in that victory. I understand. But I think there is more to that answer?**

**TC:** Why try to be an academic mage, I think you mean? Instead of trying to use my ambient magic to less violent ends. Truthfully, Laima? I wanted to be ordinary.

**LG: You could never.**

**TC:** I know that. Now.

**LG: How does it work? You were not born with academic magic, of course; surely you would have found a teacher sooner, and—let me be honest—it would be someone less renowned than Master Niklaren Goldeye!**

**TC:** Yes. My parents had me tested for magic when I was small. The tester found nothing. But my daughter, Glakisa, is an academic mage. As her first teacher, I had to work out exercises she could do to practice her own magic, and I had to—discern, I suppose, how to make those exercises work for _me_ , to _show_ her how to do them for herself, when my magic is _not_ inherently academic. Quite the learning experience.

**LG: I imagine so! I take it you succeeded in making it work, and you came to Lightsbridge to study academic magic from the ambient angle in order to become an ordinary academic mage?**

**TC:** Something like that.

**LG: How is Glakisa doing now?**

**TC:** Her last letter told me she and her teacher—Dalimila Winterbird, an academic mage from Namorn who has resided in Summersea for several years—that is, Glaki and Winterbird have been working on scrying with fire, as I do with wind. Glaki says she wants to try to be an ambient mage using painting as her medium, as Sandry uses thread. I replied—and I sent letters to Winterbird, Lark, Rosethorn, and Sandry into the bargain, so _they_ can tell Glaki as well—that she is _not_ to attempt that experiment without me there to observe and, if necessary, assist. It _probably_ can't go as spectacularly wrong as the time I tried to stop the tides, but I would rather not discover that the hard way!

**LG: —May I accompany you, when you return to Summersea so Glaki can perform that experiment? As you know, Ira, I am focusing my Lightsbridge study on the relationship between ambient and academic magic, and the opportunity to watch both you and Glaki in action would shed priceless light on my thesis!**

**TC:** Ah. So _that's_ why you suggested this interview!

**LG: Uh.**

**TC:** Certainly, Laima. You have been a great friend to me since my first day here—what else can I do but repay your kindness? Though I must admit, I now have the thought that we might coauthor a book on your thesis topic?

**LG: *laughter* I would be honored.**


End file.
